Ezekiel 13:11, commentary and pictures

Untempered mortar is a false, weak and unreliable covering that hides the truth, and the wall daubed with it shall fall under an overflowing shower and great hailstones and a stormy wind when God sends judgment to lay it bare. To daub with it is to give false assurances of peace and to speak smooth, flattering and pleasing words that approve what is not right and hide faults with misplaced sympathy instead of exposing sin. It is to whitewash heinous violations of the commandments and lightly regard them instead of showing horror at them, calling evil good and darkness light by holding up the wrongdoer as right and permitting the guilty into fellowship, which kindles God's anger and will be exposed in judgment upon both the upheld and those who upheld him. God does not gloss over wrongdoing with such mortar but calls sin and impenitence by their right names, drawing a sharp contrast between pure truth and false, misleading doctrines. Instead of healing the hurt slightly by crying peace when there is no peace, there must be plain, faithful and decided warning that searches, digs deep, purges evil and presses reformatory truth, even when it displeases and alarms careless professors.

Weak Covering Will Fall

Untempered mortar is a false covering that hides the truth, and a wall daubed with it is weak and unreliable and shall fall under an overflowing shower and great hailstones and a stormy wind when judgment exposes it. It is false assurance covering sin with a weak defense that cannot make the church or the work safe, for defects must not be concealed but repented, confessed and forsaken, with no half-hearted reform accepted. Glossing over sin and impenitence with misleading doctrines, and speaking smooth things to undermine pointed reproof, cannot make wrong secure or blunt the warning, so direct uncompromising warning must be given rather than softened or hidden, as in warning about views leading to spiritualism.

To daub is to give false assurances of peace and to speak smooth, flattering, pleasing words that approve what is not right and hide faults with misplaced sympathy instead of exposing sin. It tells a man everything he has done is all right when it is not, minces the matter, and covers betrayal, treachery and rebellion with fair speeches instead of calling things by their right name and speaking plain truth just as it is. Such flattering of unconsecrated friends and sympathizing with them instead of speaking truth injures them and will not protect them from judgment, as when Masten was told peace while dying with sins unconfessed, concealing his true condition unto ruin. That work is on the enemy's side, deceives many to ruin, leaves unsettled wavering souls tossed to and fro, and makes plain warning ineffective, whereas faithfulness requires telling errors plainly so they can be corrected and the Holy Spirit can work, speedily taking a decided stand on the Lord's side with straightforward living testimony without self and without a harsh denunciatory spirit.

Daubing is whitewashing heinous sin, lightly regarding adultery and other violations of the commandments instead of showing disgust and horror at them, covering them up and seeking to make evil appear good. It calls darkness light and light darkness, holds up the wrongdoer as right, approves a breaker of the commandment who dishonored parents, spoke guile, took God's name in vain and defiled the house of worship by unsubdued passion, permits guilty sinners into fellowship, and praises a man as morally worthy when he is not. It fails to lay the ax at the root by plain reproof and removal of sin, and instead fosters wicked feelings God abhors, indulges the passions of the carnal heart, impatience, fretfulness and faultfinding, calls it a small thing, and exalts the sinner in his own eyes until he is far from God and truth, rich and increased in goods in his own sight, unwilling to bear reproof, angry and self-justifying, with God's Spirit withdrawn from him and he knows it not. Those who do this kindle God's anger against themselves and are unfit for any leading responsible position until they entirely reform and view sin and sinners from altogether a different standpoint, and both those falsely upheld and those who uphold them will be exposed and judged when judgment reveals the truth.

Daubing is covering grave sins cherished among professed Sabbathkeepers with a false appearance of safety, and testimony must be clear-cut and must not cover or excuse sins of grave character. Unless an awakening convicts and converts them they will die in their sins, for they have not purified their souls by obeying the truth. Those who have received great light and precious opportunities but remain earthly-minded and corrupt in thought and practice face punishment greater than Sodom and Gomorrah.

Daubing is plastering up the breach made when the large Sanitarium at Battle Creek was swept away and then rebuilt where it stood against counsel. The counsel disobeyed was that the Sanitarium was too large and should have been divided, with plants made in different places and memorials established in many places so the light of present truth might shine forth, leaving heavy responsibilities now a terrible burden. Covering that disobedience and the transgressions and mistakes of those who took responsibility on their own shoulders with justification, excuses, smoothing over and human patching will not stand. Those who stand ready to plaster the breach must get out of the way, let God work upon their hearts, strive to bring the light of heaven upon their own souls instead of tearing things to pieces and making the best of the situation, and unite with those who acted in humbling the soul before God and seeking His guidance, and those responsible will in mercy be pardoned for the sake of His cause and His name's glory if converted and humbled before Him.

Walls daubed with untempered mortar include restrictions laid to keep reproof and rebuke from coming among the people and to obstruct corrective truth, and leaders covering wrongdoing with flimsy excuses. They are weak and cannot stand, for when reproof exposes what was built it brings it down. God has men prepared and filled with His Spirit who will go through these walls, proclaim the word of the Lord, show the people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins, and the truth in their hands will not be diminished or lose its power but will go onward and upward to the end.

Daubing is handling the subjects of Bible truth carelessly, superficially or compromisingly and giving them a false covering instead of handling them wisely, faithfully and decidedly. Those who teach must present their importance on every possible occasion with wise counsel and instruction, and Christian physicians glorify God by carrying a decided influence for righteousness and truth beyond the institution where they labor, making themselves known outside it, giving the light to all they can reach, using every talent to meet unbelievers, so that prejudice is broken down and souls are reached and converted.

A work superficially covered over, where there is no faith that works by love and purifies the soul and no decisive break toward reformation, as at the Retreat, is daubing that only the Spirit of God can undo. Unsound instruction that cannot stand or safely guard souls is daubing, and those who would guide others must be awakened, shaped by the Holy Spirit and cleansed from impurity to be prepared to give true instruction.

Give Plain Faithful Warning

Daubing with untempered mortar is giving undue attention that pacifies and pleases willful and jealous persons instead of giving faithful dealing mingled with kindness and plain truth suited to their condition. Such flattering only injures them and taxes strength to no profit, failing in discernment and judgment, and it leads those flattered to expect the same consideration from others and excites jealousy when they are not flattered. It encourages jealousy and self-importance, makes them think themselves essential and their judgment above the church, makes them unwilling to submit and be led, and places them in temptation. Covering a false or harmful condition in this way cannot prevent its collapse, as was shown with the Hales, and what is needed is plain truth suited to the condition, like an ax laid at the root of a tree. Smooth words spoken to cover wrongdoing will not make what is built secure, but the teaching is exposed and its influence upon God's people is made ineffective when God's pointed reproof is given.

Faithfulness forbids acting in an underhanded manner and failing in duty in a position of trust by withholding the plain straightforward message given by God instead of frank, open dealing with the erring. It requires coming close to the erring one, praying with and for him, and perseveringly setting matters before him as pointed out in order to save his soul, and speaking very plainly to reprove and warn about faults and fitness for ministry. No man is to be put in trust as a shepherd of the flock until he has opportunity to be enlightened in the Scriptures. The Lord has a controversy with those who daub instead of doing this work and holds them accountable for their neglect, and their failure leaves a bad showing that faithful timely warning would have prevented. God condemns this miserable way of dealing with wrongs because it hurts souls and mars His work, and He requires things to be set in order by men of decided fidelity, not two-sided men in an emergency, who will lay the hand upon a wrong work and say this is not according to the will of God.

God does not gloss over wrongdoing with a coat of untempered mortar but calls sin and impenitence by the right name, drawing a sharp contrast between pure, elevating, ennobling truth and false, misleading doctrines. Unity therefore must not be unity on wrong practices but unity on a true, scriptural basis. Daubing is healing the hurt of the daughter of God's people slightly and crying peace, peace when there is no peace, and covering souls with a weak charity that covers sins left unconfessed and unrepented of because thorough work has not been done to deal plainly brother with brother and friend with friend. It is countenancing evil through lack of discernment and leaving souls in Satan's chain in bondage. That work must stop, and every soul who has done it must weep and pray and confess the lack of discernment.

In its place there must be thorough work that searches, digs deep, stirs up pestilent matter and purges it away, dies to self, and is Christlike in every sense, as children in malice but men in understanding. There must be stronger faith in the love of Christ, with charity added to brotherly kindness, and obedience to the law of God as the fruit of gospel repentance, with faith, hope, love and every kind of charity magnified. There is to be no communion with those who doubt and reject God's work to set the church right after He has pleaded face to face, but separation from fellowship as the only way to live and to wipe away the stain and reproach brought upon the church. Clearing the garments from the blood of souls requires lifting the voice and faithfully declaring the warning without clipping the truth or softening reproof to please with pleasing words, even if hearers turn to enemies. Those who daub and hold their peace bear the blood of souls on their garments, come under the curse of God, and will have no excuse when they meet their message in the judgment.

The warning must be direct and uncompromising against corrupting views that lead to spiritualism, such as spiritual union, refusing to excuse sin and withdrawing all fellowship until the error is given up and the wrong is made right, as was required with Henry Allen. In an age of apostasy that calls for reformatory action there is to be no daubing with untempered mortar, for daubing is half-and-half testimony that has no saving influence as a witness for the downtrodden law. Instead co-workers with God must bear a decided testimony like those in the past, labor to secure reformation in the religious churches, uplift the standard of Christianity left to trail in the dust, press for reforms everywhere in every town and in every city, and participate with Christ in the work of reform with the spirit that was in Christ Jesus. The time for superficial work that avoids close, plain and faithful dealing with sin and rests on general appeals that have little effect is past. Instead there must be living, earnest labor through Christ, with direct appeals and personal application of truth to the individual conscience, sounding the alarm to careless and world-loving professors even when it displeases them and makes their ears tingle. The people must be aroused to do the work enjoined, to take up stumbling-blocks and clear out rubbish so the Spirit of God may come in, with the guilt as well as the danger of backsliding faithfully pointed out, followed up by personal effort that comes close to hearts and moves all to act a part.